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While not every state can claim so specific an act—even a date, time, and person—responsible for its name, Louisiana can quite confidently claim La Salle’s act on the ninth of April in 1682 as the specific origin of its name. The intrepid explorer went on to describe the extent of the region he was claiming.
- ALABAMA: From an Indian tribe of the Creek Confederacy originally called the Alabamas or Alibamons, who in turn gave the name to a river from which the State name was derived.
- ALASKA: From Eskimo word "alakshak”, meaning peninsula; also said to mean "great lands. "
- ARIZONA: Many authorities attribute the meaning to a word meaning arid zone or desert. Others claim the name is Aztec, from "arizuma" meaning "silver bearing."
- ARKANSAS.: Origin uncertain. As usual with words of Indian origin, there are various spellings for this State name, among them Alkansia, Alkansas, and Akamsea.
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Before Europeans landed on American shores, the upper stretches of the Alabama River in present-day Alabama used to be the home lands of a Native American tribe called – drum roll, please – the Alabama (Albaamaha in their own tribal language). The river and the state both take their names from the tribe, that's clear enough, but the meaning of the ...
Like Alabama (and, as we'll see, plenty of other state names), the name Alaska comes from the language of the area's indigenous people. The Aleuts (a name given to them by Russian fur traders in the mid 18th century; they used to, and sometimes still do, call themselves the Unangan), natives of the Aleutian Islands, referred to the Alaskan Peninsul...
There are two sides in the argument over the origin of Arizona's name. One side says that the name comes from the Basquearitz onak (“good oak”) and was applied to the territory because the oak trees reminded the Basque settlers in the area of their homeland. The other side says that the name comes from the Spanish Arizonac, which was derived from t...
The first Europeans to arrive in the area of present-day Arkansas were French explorers accompanied by Illinois Indian guides. The Illinois referred to the Ugakhpa people native to the region as the Akansa (“wind people” or “people of the south wind”), which the French adopted and pronounced with an r. They added an s to the end for pluralization, ...
California existed in European literature way before Europeans settled the Western U.S. It wasn't a state filled with vineyards and movie stars, but an island in the West Indies filled with gold and women. The fictional paradise, first mentioned in the early 1500s by Spanish author Garci Ordóñez de Montalvo in his novel Las Sergas de Esplandián, is...
Colorado is a Spanish adjective that means “red.” The early Spanish explorers in the Rocky Mountain region named a river they found the Rio Colorado for the reddish silt that the water carried down from the mountains. When Colorado became a territory in 1861, the Spanish word was used as a name because it was commonly thought that the Rio Colorado ...
The state is named after the Connecticut River, which was named quinnitukqutby the Mohegans who lived in the eastern upper Thames valley. In their Algonquian language, the word means “long river place” or “beside the long tidal river.”
Delaware is named for the Delaware River and Delaware Bay. These, in turn, were named for Sir Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, the first colonial governor of Virginia, who traveled the river in 1610. The title is likely ultimately derived from the Old French de la werre(“of the war” or a warrior).
Six days after Easter in 1513, the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed near what is now the city of Saint Augustine. In honor of the holiday and the area's plant life, he named the land Florida for the Spanish phrase for the Easter season, pascua florida(“feast of flowers”). The name is the oldest surviving European place-name in the U.S...
In the early 18thcentury, the British Parliament assigned a committee to investigate the conditions of the country's debtor prisons and didn't like what they found. A group of philanthropists concerned with the plight of debtors proposed the creation of a colony in North America where the “worthy poor” could get back on their feet and be productive...
At its creation, the state of Louisiana did not include the area north and east of the Mississippi River known as the Florida Parishes. On April 14, 1812, Congress had authorized Louisiana to expand its borders to include the Florida Parishes, [ 85 ] [ 86 ] but the border change required approval of the state legislature, which it did not give until August 4. [ 87 ]
On August 21, 1959, Hawaii joined the United States as its 50th state. Idaho. The origin of Idaho ’s state name is from a fabricated Native American word. A lobbyist named George M. Willing suggested the name “Idaho” for a new territory created by the U.S. Congress in the early 1860s.
Antebellum Louisiana was a leading slave state, where by 1860, 47% of the population was enslaved. Louisiana seceded from the Union on January 26, 1861, joining the Confederate States of America. New Orleans, the largest city in the entire South at the time, and strategically important port city, was taken by Union troops on April 25, 1862.
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Feb 25, 2023 · Kentucky – The name “Kentucky” comes from the Iroquois word “kenhtà:ke,” meaning “land of tomorrow.”. Louisiana – The state of Louisiana is named after King Louis XIV of France. Maine – The name “Maine” is believed to have come from the French word “main,” meaning “hand,” because the state resembles a hand on a map.
